Judge denies expedited hearing on sale of Bellefonte plant

Judge denies expedited hearing on sale of Bellefonte plant

Bellefonte Nuclear Plant is pictured Monday, July 30, 2018 in Hollywood, Alabama. Nuclear Development LLC successfully bid $111 million for the Bellefonte site, with its two partially-built pressurized water reactors plus infrastructure, including switchyards, office buildings, warehouses, cooling towers, water pumping stations and railroad spurs.

Photo by
Erin O. Smith

Franklin Haney, of the Franklin Haney Company, speaks with Tom Decosimo before the event. The Electric Power Board of Chattanooga unveiled its new 100 kilowatt, 4-hour, vanadium redox flow battery made by UniEnergy Technologies of Mukilteo, Washington on September 22, 2017.

Nuclear Development LLC filed its application for the transfer with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November, but the NRC staff is still reviewing the application to ensure that the new owners can adequately comply with the regulatory requirements for building and maintaining a nuclear plant.

To avoid chances of any delay scuttling Haney's plans to try to finish the nuclear plant, Judge Burke ordered that TVA "will satisfy the quality assurance and other requirements in accordance with the two construction permits issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission applicable to units 1 and 2 at the Bellefonte site."

If TVA moves to try to terminate its construction permits or sell the site to another buyer, the utility must give the court at least five days advance notice, Burke said.

Haney, a former Chattanooga-based real estate developer who made a fortune building and leasing government office buildings, roads and other facilities, is trying to become the first individual to own a nuclear plant in the United States. Although TVA said its long-range power projections show it won't need the power that Bellefonte can generate, Haney contends he could finish Bellefonte and generate carbon-free power desired by many power consumers at a price below some existing generation sources cost TVA and other utilities.

As a private owner, Haney could qualify for production tax credits potentially worth more than $2 billion, which TVA could not receive as a government entity.

Haney also has asked the U.S. Department of Energy for loan guarantees on the project of nearly $5 billion. B But DOE has yet to grant that request and one U.S. senator has questioned any DOE loan to Haney after he hired the former personal attorney to President Trump to help lobby for money to complete Bellefonte.

NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said Friday "the staff continues to work on determining whether the application (from Nuclear Development ) is acceptable for a full review," which typically takes several months. Since Haney wants to try to finish Bellefonte as a nuclear power plant, the construction permit needs to be maintained to ensure that the plant conforms with NRC standards even though TVA suspended most of its work at Bellefonte more than three decades ago.

TVA has already invested more than $5 billion into Bellefonte. At one point, TVA estimated the Unit 1 reactor was about 90 percent complete and the other reactors was about 50 percent finished. But since then, TVA gutted some of the plant equipment and new digital standards have forced other upgrades for new nuclear plants.

TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Friday that TVA "will be filing more formal responses to some of the lawsuits allegations in the coming weeks" and he said the federal utility "will continue to work with the court through these legal proceedings."